New Triumph Touring Bike Spied!

The lucrative touring segment will soon get a jolt when Triumph enters the market with a flourish. Spy photos from England’s Motor Cycle News show what looks to be a replacement for the Trophy touring model that bit the dust back in 2003. The bike is much larger than Triumph’s Sprint GT sport-tourer, promising a bigger, more powerful three-cylinder engine. A more expansive fairing and the addition of shaft drive will easily make this the most luxurious touring mount ever from Triumph.

Not only will the new Trophy expand Triumph’s market reach, it’s also likely we’ll see a version of this new motor (likely 1200-1300cc) in other future Triumphs. Its shaft final-drive might indicate use on a bigger Tiger adventure-tourer, now that the new Tiger 800 will ably serve Triumph’s smaller A-T class.

The bike in these photos looks like it’s already far into development and not just a cobbled-together prototype, so we expect the new Trophy to come off the production line in 2011.

After creating a carbon copy of the F800GS for their big trailie, now they’re doing a carbon copy of the R1200RT for their tourer?? Doesn’t Triumph have their OWN design staff, or do they have to wait for Dave Robb to release his designs before they come up with their variation??

If they’re going to copy somebody, copy the Italians. At least they make some nice, two-wheeled eye candy (most of the time… the Multistrada being the most notable exception).

dinoSnake

The details of this make me sad. Yet another touring bike…that increases in size, weight and fuel use.

Why can’t the manufacturers make a good touring bike that isn’t the size of a whale??

The 1100cc triple-equipped Sprint series was a good physical size. Smaller than the mega-supersport tourers of the Concours and FJR, but larger than a 600/750 sport, they filled a perfect gap for those of us looking for more but not “too much”. The major problem (from a distance perspective) of the Sprint series was the use of chain final drive rather than shaft or (how about?!) belt. So the new Trophy’s promise – a shafty, ‘midsize’ Triumph tourer – sounded great.

But it’s not to be. Enlarged just like every other bike on the market, IMHO for no reason at all. Triumph had a market with the Sprints but now…?? Rather than keep their own path they simply merged into everyone else’s development traffic pattern with bigger, heavier, more expensive.

Looks like the VFR is the only option for those of us looking for a sport-tourer without all the extra size and weight.

After creating a carbon copy of the F800GS for their big trailie, now they’re doing a carbon copy of the R1200RT for their tourer?? Doesn’t Triumph have their OWN design staff, or do they have to wait for Dave Robb to release his designs before they come up with their variation?? If they’re going to copy somebody, copy the Italians. At least they make some nice, two-wheeled eye candy (most of the time… the Multistrada being the most notable exception).

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